In 2019, Stephen Thaler developed an AI system he called The Creativity Machine. He generated output he called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. When he applied to register a copyright claim in the output, he listed the machine as the author. He claimed ownership of the work as a work made for hire. In his
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Copyrights in AI-Generated Content
By Thomas James
The U.S. Copyright Office has issued its long-awaited report on the copyrightability of works created using AI-generated output. The legality of using copyrighted works to train generative-AI systems is a topic for another day.
Key takeaways:
- Copyright protects the elements of a work that are created by a human, but does not protect elements that
…
Fair Use Decision in Thomson Reuters v. Ross
By Thomas James
A court has handed down the first known ruling (to me, anyway) on “fair use” in the wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against AI companies that are pending in federal courts. The ruling came in Thomas Reuters v. Ross. Thomas Reuters filed this lawsuit against Ross Intelligence back in 2020, alleging that Ross trained its…
Top Copyright Cases of 2024
By Thomas James
Warner Chappell Music Inc. v. Nealy
The Copyright Act imposes a three-year period of limitations for copyright infringement claims. There has been a split in the circuits about whether this means that damages could be claimed only for infringement occurring during the three-year period or whether damages could be recovered for earlier acts of infringement…
AI Lawsuits Roundup
By Thomas James
A very brief summary of where pending AI lawsuits stand as of February 28, 2024. Compiled by Minnesota attorney Thomas James.
Thomson Reuters v. Ross, (D. Del. 2020)
Filed May 6, 2020. Thomson Reuters, owner of Westlaw, claims that Ross Intelligence infringed copyrights in Westlaw headnotes by training AI on copies of them. The judge…
Top IP Developments of 2023
By Thomas James
2023 was a big year for U.S. intellectual property law. Major developments occurred in every area. Here are the highlights.
Copyright
Fair Use
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith et al.
I’ve written about this case before here and here. The Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case in…
Generative-AI as Unfair Trade Practice
By Thomas James
FTC Press Release exceprt
While Congress and the courts are grappling with the copyright issues that AI has generated, the federal government’s primary consumer watchdog has made a rare entry into the the realm of copyright law. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a Comment with the U.S. Copyright Office suggesting that generative-AI could…
Case Update: Andersen v. Stability AI
By Thomas James
Artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz filed a class action lawsuit against Stability AI, DeviantArt, and MidJourney in federal district court alleging causes of action for copyright infringement, removal or alteration of copyright management information, and violation of publicity rights. (Andersen, et al. v. Stability AI Ltd. et al., No. 23-cv-00201-WHO…
The Top 3 Generative-AI Copyright Issues
By Thomas James
Black hole consuming a star. Photo credit: NASA.
What are your favorite generative-AI copyright issues? In this capsule summary, Cokato attorney Tom James shares what his three favorites are.
Generative artificial intelligence refers collectively to technology that is capable of generating new text, images, audio/visual and possibly other content in response to a user’s prompts.…
AI Legislative Update
By Thomas James
Congressional legislation to regulate artificial intelligence (“AI”) and AI companies is in the early formative stages. Just about the only thing that is certain at this point is that federal regulation in the United States is coming.
In August, 2023, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a Bipartisan Framework for U.S. AI…